Filibustering

A few hours ago there was a report on the Voice of America about how the Democrats are doing some filibustering in Congress in order to disturb a
voting process that involves some conservative candidates selected by Bush, something having to do with the Judiciary Branch of the Gov't.

Then they went into a quick explanation on the obstructive tactics called "filibustering", & they said that...

1) ...the term comes from an Old Dutch word meaning "a pirate that captures ships in the high seas", but that in this case what is kept "captive"
is a candidate or a law being discussed in Congress, to avoid their approval,
2) the procedure involves speaking endlessly about anything except the matter to be discussed, including kitchen recipes,
3) Huey Long was a master of the art, back in the 30s,
4) the same as Strom Thurmond, who established a record in 1957 by speaking for 24 straight hours, &
5) in the movie "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" James Stewart (?) plays a filibustering Congressman who collapses after speaking for hours.

It's not the first time I hear about this devious business. In school we had a Political Science class & we were told about Huey Long (Louisiana?)
once going into a long speech in which he described how to prepare "potlikker" (some kind of soup or gravy). Our teacher made us laugh by reading
some of it out loud.

...so I was wondering how knowledgeable about filibustering the people who spend their time here at the Politics Forum happen to be. Supposing
everybody who knows something about it were to write it down here, would we eventually have enough of it to publish a book that could be sold to high
school students?
*

Basically, as long as you are talking, no vote. You can read Homer's Odyssey(sp?) if you want, you just have to talk. Also, you can't sit or lay
down while filibustering, you have to stand for the whole time.

Funny Fact. DixieCrat(Republican in Dem Clothing) Strum held the record. WHat was he trying to block? Civil Rights Act. Yep, a republican holds
the record for trying to keep blacks 2nd Class Citizens. Nowadays they are trying to ban filibusters....... hypocrits.

Now, for people like Carseller4(argued with him on this in other topics) who don't understand what a DixieCrat is, it was a democrat who lived in the
south. Now, why did they consider themselves democrats? Well, sure they wanted guns legal, abortion evil, and everything else on the republican
party line, but they believed in Federal Power over State Power. Yep, they were republicans, but since they believed in Federal Power over State
Power, they ran on Dem tickets. Also, for the people who didn't know this, Lincoln is a grand daddy of the Democrats.

Formally known as the Democrat Republicans, they were a political group that believed in Fed over State, just like Abe. Also, if you take ANY
government class the teacher should go over the formations of parties. How it started out Federal and Anti-Federal, then it was Federal and
Republican. Then you had Free Soilers, Republicans, Federalist, and a couple more. Now, as the years pass you drop the Free Soilers for slaves were
now free. In the end you have two main parties, Democrat Republicans and Republicans. Finally the Dems drop the Republicans and were just Democrats.

The difference? Democrats believe in progression, the republicans want us back to the 1200's. Democrats believe in Fed Power, like the US Postal
Service, Social Security, Federal Roads(highways), Welfare, Medicare, freedom of speech, so forth. Republicans believe in State Power, like Jim Crow
Laws, and uh, well, Jim Crow Laws about it. Democrats want a United States, 50 states in one nation, the republicans want 50 nations. Each state
would have it's own currency, laws, so forth. Democrats want the people to be represented by the people, the republicans want a high archy of a rich
ruling class. Democrats believe in both freedom of religon and freedom from religon. Republicans want a priest/minister to be president, to rule
America by theocracy, like the Taliban.

I know people go to school for this, but some teach more then others, and apparently mine taught more.

Strom Thurmond WAS a Democrat filibustering Civil Rights. He did not switch to the Republican Party until 7 years after the fact.

The Civil Rights Bill was passed only because of strong Republican leadership. 22 Democrats and 6 Republicans voted against it.

Up until it's passage Democrats voted AGAINST Civil rights issues 90% of the time. Repubicans voted FOR Civil rights issues over 80% of the time.

James, you have mentioned the you have just read Al Franken's book...Lying liars lie lying lie lie liars....bah, whatever the title is. Upchucking
Stuart Smalley does not make you a history major, thats for sure.

Anyways, did you not take government class? Or did you sleep during it? Strum Thurmond was not a democrat, none of them were, they were DIXIE CRATS!
They were republicans who believed in Fed Power, everything else was republican! Did you not take a Government class? The Dixiecrats all lied for
awhile, then finally, as you said, became republicans. I know some schools don't have US Government class, maybe yours was one of them.....

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